Getting started

I've just returned from a local restaurant (Swiss village equivalent of the proverbial "local") with my daughter, who is nine years old. One of the things that I love about this place is the tolerance for young children. We all know that young children grow up to become teenagers, along with all the attendant diseases this condition brings, but here the people all still see the young ones as an extended member of their own tribe of grandsiblings. Possibly this is due to the fact that I live in a rather rural little village where 99% of the locals sitting in the pub are over 60, but nevertheless, it is quite cute. For instance, my nine year old was drawing on a small chalkboard (used by the locals in the highly popular card game known as 'Jass', pronounced 'Yuss'). She began with a stick figure, and slowly it developed a head. The local old men, always intrigued by the little children's antics, began to peer over at the drawing, offering comments and advice. Translated from the local dialect the comments lose some of their potency, but nonetheless it went something like this: "Hey, Kirsty, that Paul you're drawing?" Paul is a rotund little dwarf of a man who drives a Harley and has a massive handlebar moustache. With a look of trepidation at Paul, Kirsty took the plunge and confirmed this gentleman's observation. "Well, put the stupid moustache on and lose the hair on his head," the bloke said, to a round of laughter. Paul, gentleman that he is, didn't bat an eyelid. "The hair might have slipped a bit, but it's still more than all these blokes have combined!" Here I must add that Paul is, from the eyebrows down, gifted with a profusion of long, wiry hair in varying hues of grey. The drawing progressed, until Kirsty had a perfect rendition of the proverbial troll under the bridge. It was shown proudly to all the old men at the table, to much approval and laughter, including from Paul, who as usual took all the ribbing perfectly in his stride with great applomb.

I think the point of this little story is that it is so nice to be surrounded by good hearted, old fashioned people with time for everyone. No rudeness, no impatience, just the comfort of down-home people. There is a lot to be said for these fine locals of this little village.